A resident of the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona has died from pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, health officials confirmed on Friday, July 11, BBC reports. This was the first recorded death from the disease in the county since 2007, Coconino County Health and Human Services reported. In that case, a person had an interaction with a dead animal infected with the disease. Plague, known as the Black Death in the 14th century, killed up to half of Europe's population. It is now rare in humans and can be treated with antibiotics. An average of seven human plague cases are reported each year in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Coconino County government said the risk to the public of exposure remains low. There are different forms of plague, such as bubonic plague, which is the most common and is caused by the bite of an infected flea. Pneumonic plague, which spreads to the lungs from other untreated forms of plague, is the most serious and is usually rare. Symptoms of the bubonic plague in humans typically appear within two to eight days after exposure and may include fever, chills, headache, weakness, and swollen lymph nodes. Read full report here.
